Once or more fired brass

Mitch Rapp · Mar 1, 2011

What do you guys do with brass that you gather at a range, or that you know has been reloaded, but not sure how many times?

I am not new to re loading but have not done it enough to know when to toss my brass, or tell if it is still ok. I have had some say to keep at it untill you get cracks at the mouth of the case, but I don't know. Maybe I worry too much, I just don't want a 2c piece of brass to ruin a 1k gun. So what do yall do? I have thought that maybe I could just use any "unknown history" brass to load plinking ammo?

ChrisC · Mar 1, 2011

i toss it into a bucket where eventually it gets tumbled and reloaded. if it isn't cracked i will use it...

steak · Mar 1, 2011

ChrisC said:
i toss it into a bucket where eventually it gets tumbled and reloaded. if it isn't cracked i will use it...

Yep

Mitch Rapp · Mar 1, 2011

ever get any bass where the base won't fit in the shell holders?

pyplynr · Mar 1, 2011

ChrisC said:
i toss it into a bucket where eventually it gets tumbled and reloaded. if it isn't cracked i will use it...

+1

I've bought some used Lapua .308 brass from a guy dirt cheap and he wasn't sure how many firings it had. I've got 12 more firings off the same brass.

Spiff · Mar 1, 2011

It goes in the range brass pile. My previous .223 match brass was range brass. I shot it 4 times and decided that was enough. Anything that I didn't like about the case (primer fit, markings, etc.) got it tossed into the scrap pile. I figured that was only going to last so long before it bit me, so now my match brass will start as 1x fired military and range brass will be for practice only.

stan686 · Mar 16, 2011

ChrisC said:
i toss it into a bucket where eventually it gets tumbled and reloaded. if it isn't cracked i will use it...

What he said.........

dennishoddy · Mar 16, 2011

Its been my opinion from 30+ years of reloading shotgun, centerfire rifle, and pistol, that the brass is designed to seal against blow-back pressure, and its not entirely designed to prevent overpressure in the chamber. Shotgun rounds that have "high brass" are no stronger than the 99% plastic hulls, but are sold, as the customer has a perception that high brass = more power, and needs the high brass. I've loaded the plastic rounds in the past with no pressure problems using heavy loads. Pretty much stick to AA hulls now as I don't have access to the plastic ones.
Centerfire pistol and rifle brass is no different IMO. Some brass in the same caliber is thicker than the other, with the more powerful calibers having brass a few thousands of an inch thicker. I don't know exactly why, but thats the way it is.

I shoot them until I see signs of brass failure, and put them in the pile to be sold at the scrap yard.

I'm open to discussion on this. Might learn something

honeybee · Mar 21, 2011

Mitch Rapp said:
ever get any bass where the base won't fit in the shell holders?

not with bass but rainbow trout never fit in the shell holders.

HMFIC · Mar 23, 2011

Just watch for signs on your brass. It will tell you as long as you listen.

On the question of it not fitting in the shell holder... is it out of round or ??? Are you sure you have the correct shell holder? What brand / number is it or post a pic. I have a cross reference for all the types somewhere that I could dig up.

Mitch Rapp · Mar 23, 2011

HMFIC said:
Just watch for signs on your brass. It will tell you as long as you listen.

On the question of it not fitting in the shell holder... is it out of round or ??? Are you sure you have the correct shell holder? What brand / number is it or post a pic. I have a cross reference for all the types somewhere that I could dig up.

It was a batch of once fired LC brass, about one out of 10-20 would be very tight or not fit.

HMFIC · Mar 25, 2011

Mitch Rapp said:
It was a batch of once fired LC brass, about one out of 10-20 would be very tight or not fit.

LC brass is thicker especially at the head anyway, but you probably got some that was fired in a machine gun and maybe caused a little shape issue? I don't think I've ever had any amount to speak of that was malformed especially not 1 out of 10.

Just toss them aside in a pile for the recycler and move on to the next... it's cheap enough not to worry about unless you have some issue with your shell holder. Those are cheap too if you somehow got a messed up one.

OH... did you swage or cut the primer pocket to remove the crimp too?

What brand of shell holder and number is it?